After hearing a description of a similar sudden change to hearing on This American Life, I expected the answer to be "confusing, because his brain can't interpret the sounds or sort out signal from noise." I was surprised that he was immediately enjoying music.
You are correct. When a cochlear implant is activated for the first time, everything sounds markedly different from how it sounds to normal hearing people. That lasts for at least first week, while the brain rapidly learns how to interpret the input.
The guy in this story is still not hearing music normally. Being profoundly deaf means having a very, very small amount of hearing, which is just enough for a powerful hearing aid to help. But he's almost certainly not hearing the full dynamic range of the music.
I have first-hand experience with all of this stuff, and I find this story be overblown, to say the least.
I was profoundly deaf. I wore hearing aids and later got a cochlear implant. And I've known several people in a similar position.
Trust me, these stories about people hearing for the first time are sensationalized, to say the least. I'm in no way minimizing how miraculous these devices are -- just be aware that the experience is quite different to that being portrayed in the media.
You're an expert on how this fellow felt the first time he listened to music via his new equipment?
I think it is likely that you are an expert on how you feel, but this guy is crying as he listens to Mozart, he said it himself, and I'm not sure how much more we can ask for.
Nice straw man you've got there; I didn't say anything about the guy, let alone his feelings. Let's keep this discussion constructive.
I'm just sharing my perspective, based on experience -- these stories are misleading at best. Like all stories, they're far too neat. Reality is messier. Despite what the stories would have you believe, they still doesn't hear normally. They hear better. But not normally.
You know what the reality is? The reality is getting hearing aids and still not being able to use the phone to do phone interviews. And having people insist on it anyway. And then helplessly watching your dream job slip out of your grasp because you can't hear the interviewer's questions. Reality is being in school and failing, because the exam had a verbal component. And having the instructor just smirk. It's sitting as a bystander in conversations because you can't follow it. It's being passed over for promotions because you can't be trusted to hear important things. And nobody can see any of it happening. Except you.
That's the real story. A little piece of it. Yes, there are delightful moments with any improvement in hearing, but there's a larger context that always gets left out of these feel-good pieces.
Next week we'll have someone that's been blind for nearly their whole life told that "seeing the sunset in brilliant color for the first in such a long time brought me to tears" is overblown.
I don't know how deaf the person in the OP was, as with blindness, there are varying degrees of deafness. He may have some form of hearing because the vocabulary that he describes the first things he hears, e.g. friend with a "slight rasp in his voice" is quite rich.
But even assuming he was totally deaf before, a lot of people believe that basic music appreciation is one of the wired-in aspects of the brain, like language. In fact, there is some proof that language and music are processed by the same parts of the brain (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927121101.ht...). So, just as a person who never have exposed to language can quickly learn it when s/he encounters it (many such cases are documented, e.g. feral children, Genie) so a deaf person theoretically would start enjoying music from the get go.
The difference in the other story may be related to the sensor technology, as you point out, maybe the cochlear implant was distorting the sounds somewhat.
I actually have a friend who claims to not like music; that's it... end of the argument.
He doesn't dislike certain types of music, or the modern perversion of music. He just can't stand music.
He's been known to watch movies with little-to-no music in the soundtrack... and with his almighty DM powers he has been known to ruthlessly obliterate Bard's from his D&D campaigns.
It's not uncommon in other areas, such as food, for people to be prematurely dismissive - such as "I don't like Chinese food" or "seafood", or whatever, based on having eaten one or two dishes and being put off it. Is it possible that your friend is in a similar situation, where actually there is music he would like except that he made his judgement before he discovered it and hasn't allowed himself to re-evaluate his opinion since then?
I have listened to a wide range of music and I don't care for any of it. Some African chanting is interesting but more in the way that crashing waves where interesting than any real emotional response.
If this was his first pair of hearing aids then you would be absolutely correct, it would take him weeks, over even months, to get accustomed to the new sounds. From what I know of people with CIs (I wear hearing aids) the process of re-learning sounds is much harder - with hearing aids it is more about the barrage of sounds and noise, with CIs it is more about learning what the sounds actually represent as well as the noise etc. The opening sentence in the article does say that he has worn aids before but none were as good as his new Phonaks - so getting used to the new aids would be pretty easy for him.
If hearing aids which are just amplifiers help, then he's not 100% deaf. His brain still has some input from the ears and can learn which impulses are from the ears. The guy in your story didn't even realize the vibrations were noises at first.
Yes, the article seems questionable. He got new hearing aids, so he most likely was able to hear with his old ones, albeit not with high fidelity.
I have a cochlear implant (since hearing aids never helped), and I can't make sense out of most sounds. Much less distinguish raspy speech from my best friend. Music is just annoying noise, but I did enjoy playing Medal of Honor and other shooters with the speakers on when I was younger.
I am too under impression that your music taste is a product of a long and sophisticated coevolution between you and the music you like.
Without it, you might appreciate a piece of music for its qualities, but not actually enjoy it. If you get to hear the music of some unknown civilization, you won't likely enjoy it right away (and they won't enjoy your favourites).
So I'm willing to sign off his enjoyment on novelity. Any mind-opening new experience makes you ecstatic, but it's not the content - it's the form. But this effect wears off and you start to be choosy.
Any ideas why this might vary so drastically?
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Edit: maybe it's a technological difference; the TAL story involved cochlear implants. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/411/t...